Microsaic Systems plc Revenues up 69% with a year of accelerated growth

Glenn Tracey, Microsaic Systems plc CEO, commented:

“2018 marks the year of accelerated growth for the business. Microsaic has increased its customer base from one partner to eight and has extended its geographic reach to now include Southeast Asia, Europe and North America, with further growth planned in 2019. As CEO for just over a year, I am encouraged with the Company’s progress, particularly in business development, which continues to expand globally. This has contributed to top-line growth in 2018 of 69%, and I am confident that we will continue to see strong growth in 2019. I am also pleased with our operational development, following the transfer of our clean-room facility and assembly to our manufacturing partner. Targeted investment will be made in 2019 to further strengthen our capabilities in commercialisation and product development.”

Microsaic Systems plc (LON:MSYS), the developer of point of need mass spectrometry instruments, announced today its audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2018. The Company’s Annual Report is included at the end of this announcement.

Financial highlights

· Revenues up 69% at £578,258 (2017: £342,514);

· Gross margin 42% versus 35% last year;

· Operating expenses are 8% above last year due to investment in business development;

· The basic loss per share fell by 42% from 1.46p to 0.85p per share mainly as a result of the increase in the number of shares in issue following the fundraise; and

· Cash balances at year end are £5.4m (2017: £3.2m) and in line with the Board’s expectations at the June 2018 fundraising.

Key events

· Unit sales, half of which were from new customers, were double those of 2017;

· Signed seven new commercial agreements, with two OEM partners and five distributors;

· Announcement of large-protein Detector, the Microsaic MiD® ProteinID, ranked among the top innovative products of 2018 by The Analytical Scientist Innovation Awards;

· Successful fundraise in June 2018 of £5.05m (net of expenses);

· Bioprocessing collaboration terminated by partner due to their internal strategy, despite the Company meeting its milestones;

· Outsourced product assembly and test; and

· ISO 9001 2015 accreditation.

Strategic Progress

The Company successfully raised £5.05m (net of expenses) during 2018 to commercialise the Company’s opportunities in bioprocessing, and to further enhance the Company’s miniaturised MS instruments. This is designed to ensure the continued competitiveness of the Company’s product range and to create additional market opportunities.

The Company doubled its unit sales in 2018 compared with last year, and half of the sales were from new customers. In addition, Microsaic signed seven new commercial agreements, with two OEM partners and five distributors. This demonstrates the Board’s strategy to widen the Company’s commercial reach, which now includes Europe, North America, China and Southeast Asia.

2018 saw Microsaic launch the 4500 MiD® MS Detector, which the Directors believe will be attractive to the growing market for laboratory-based applications with larger biological molecules, such as peptides and small proteins, as well as helpful for capturing further growth in traditional chemical analysis.

Microsaic has made good progress in extending its product capabilities further into bioprocessing applications, where a range of biological entities, including monoclonal antibodies, can be analysed in a matter of minutes, generating both cost and time saving opportunities. This compares with traditional analysis, often in remote centralised laboratories, sometimes taking many days or even weeks to produce results. In collaboration with partners including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), Microsaic has demonstrated its capabilities in small and large molecule in-situ analysis. Data from these studies is being used to support discussions with potential new partners.

In December 2018, the Company announced that the MiD® ProteinID was ranked among the top innovative products of 2018 by The Analytical Scientist Innovation Awards. This product offers a break-through technology allowing for large protein MS-detection and will form the basis of partnership discussions in bioprocessing applications.

The collaboration with our long-standing partner in bioprocessing was completed successfully, with a clear addressable market identified and positive feedback received from potential customers. Whilst our partner is not taking the project forward into the final commercialisation phase at present, as it has decided to focus its resources on its own internal projects in support of its core business, the Directors continue to believe that there is a significant market opportunity in bioprocessing for the Company’s highly differentiated point of need MS instruments. Furthermore, the positive additional independent data received at the end of 2018 provides further validation of the opportunity which the Company is pursuing vigorously.

Key Financials for the year ended 31 December 2018

Total revenues for 2018 are up 69% at £578,258 (2017: £342,514), and gross margin is 42% versus 35% last year.

Operating expenses are 8% above last year due to investment in business development, in-line with the Company’s strategic plans.

The basic loss per share fell by 42% from 1.46p to 0.85p per share, primarily as a result of the increase in the number of shares in issue following the fundraise.

The total comprehensive loss increased by 4.6% to £2,763,961 (2017: Loss £2,643,003), due predominately to the investment in operating expenses.

Cash balances at year end are £5.4m (2017: £3.2m) and in line with the Board’s expectations following the June 2018 fundraising.

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